Keonna Thomas, Philadelphia Mom, Charged With Plan to Join ISIS

A Philadelphia mom has been charged with planning to go overseas to join ISIS and martyr herself — going so far as to buy plane tickets.

"That would be amazing... A girl can only wish," Keonna Thomas allegedly told an ISIS fighter in Syria who asked over the Internet if she would be involved in a suicide mission.

"I can make that wish come true," the unnamed fighter allegedly replied.

The government says Thomas, 30, researched travel routes to Turkey and bought a plane tickets in late March.

Thomas, who also went by the nickname YoungLioness, allegedly posted support for ISIS on Twitter, writing, "If we truly knew the realities ... we all would be rushing to join our brothers in the front lines pray ALLAH accept us as shuhada [martyrs]."

Court documents say that after applying for a passport, she told a friend that she would deactivate her Twitter account "till i leave for sham [greater Syria] ... don't want to draw attention of the kuffar [non-believers]."

In one exchange of messages with the overseas ISIS fighter, he talked about how he would shoot or behead his wife if she turned out to be a spy and betrayed him.

"Cutting head is more personal," Thomas responded, according to the criminal complaint.

Thomas' relatives, reached by phone, declined to comment. Neighbors told NBC Philadelphia she lived with her two children and grandmother in a house where American flags dotted the awning.

She was held without bail after a brief court appearance on Friday afternoon and is due back in court next week.

Her arrest comes two days after two Queens women were accused of plotting to plant bombs in the United States on behalf of Al Qaeda.